Make Over Your Diet!

Each month we'll give you one new healthy eating habit to adopt — you don't have to change anything else in your diet, just that one thing! Once it becomes second nature, keep on doing it as you add the next month's healthy habit, and the next, and so on.

We've given you 11 months of tips, recipes, and checklists. Now it's time to bring it all together. Here are some ideas to incorporate what we've said without having to overthink every meal!

Eat in moderation. You've heard this before — but it's actually not easy because it's hard to know exactly what moderation is. To make it easier, we've given you tips on how much to eat or drink of various food groups and beverages (for instance, check out months 2 through 6). We've also given you balanced recipes that help you eat the right amount of various foods and nutrients. Check out month 7 (and earlier months) for a lineup of great recipes for every meal of the day.

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Make your diet plant-based. When you're in a restaurant or a grocery store, keep this one simple rule in mind: Make the majority of each meal a combination of fruits, vegetables, and grains. That doesn't mean you have to cut out meat entirely. But most of your plate should be filled with plant-based foods. Think of it this way: Three-quarters of your plate should be filled with sides, like salads, vegetables, fruit, or bread, and the last quarter can be filled with an entrée of meat or other foods.

Try to "peel, wash, and cook," rather than "open up, unwrap, and nuke." Focus on real foods, not processed foods you find in grocery stores. Processed foods aren't necessarily unhealthy, but they should only make up part of your diet, not all of it (they should also be eaten in moderation!). For ideas on fitting real foods into your diet, check out the snack ideas in months 2, 3, 4, 6, and 11.

You can make over your diet in a healthy way, from breakfast (month 1) to dessert. Use the tools we gave you this year to create a diet that is delicious and balanced, and you will come a long way toward a new, healthier you.

—By Chris Wharton, Ph.D., research associate at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University